June 3, 2011

I’m having a hard time with the days of the week, apparently. I wrote this post with every intention of having it on the interwebs in order to celebrate my weekly “variety flour Thursday” adventure. Then life happened, and I had to push it back to Friday (today). And now I’m just catching on to the fact that this is a “Sunday night” cake. All this Thursday/Friday hullabaloo is dedicated to a treat, developed originally by Edna Lewis to be a simple cake to make but decadent enough to ring in a new week.

This post is a long time coming. Exhibit A) Colleen’s first attempt at making the cake, straight from Edna Lewis’s recipe. Not the finest example of my baking skills or ability to follow directions. Nowhere in the recipe does it say that using a bundt pan is preferable to a standard square or circle pan. I had a child-like whim that made me crave cake in the shape of a bundt, and look where it got me.

The cake itself was a little chewy and I couldn’t get the frosting right. I despaired a little and put the project on hold. Then, like always, the boys at Baked had a little something to lift my spirits. A recipe for Sunday Night Cake! Sunday Night with (gasp) a chocolate pudding frosting!? My faith in the world, or at least in my ability to bake a cake, was restored and I sallied forth to make another Sunday Night Cake.

Victory is mine! The cake was wonderful – I loved the way the sour cream gave it density but was balanced by the light crumb of cake flour. Due to my oven having a mind of its own, however, it took an extra ten minutes to bake and, when I finally pulled it out of the oven out of fear, was still a wee bit under baked. Under baked is better than burned, I guess? And the chocolate frosting? Forget about it. I was elbows deep in it from the moment it came together. I might just make the frosting on it’s own and pour it into ramekins and call it a chocolate pudding-mousse hybrid pot-de-FANTASTIC. Or something eloquent like that.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and prepare a 9 inch round or square cake pan by lining pan with parchment, then buttering the sides and bottom of parchment thoroughly.

2. In a medium-size mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, or bowl of a stand mixer if using, cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

4. Add eggs to butter mixture one at a time, beating until just incorporated between each addition. Once all eggs are added, scrape down sides of bowl and beat for a few more seconds.

5. Add flour mixture in three parts, alternating with two parts of the sour cream. Scrape down bowl after all ingredients are added and beat for a few more seconds (to make sure all ingredients are incorporated evenly).

6. Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake cake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a tester inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool cake in pan for at least 20 minutes before loosening the sides of the cake and removing it to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Ahh! The last picture makes me want to smash my face into it to eat the chocolate. That’s normal, right? Anyways, just had to stop by so I could tell Jonathan what this cake was, other than “Mmmmfsfffhh” (mouth full of cake.)